After the success of my vegan royal icing, I decided to try to give vegan sugar cookies a try. When I made the vegan royal icing, I did it only because I was fascinated with the idea of making something delicious out of the liquid in a can of chickpeas. I didn’t have anyone who follows a vegan lifestyle to make it for, it was pure curiosity.

After consulting Google, I found a recipe that looked interesting on Gretchen’s Bakery’s website. It was a bonus that it too called for aquafaba. I made minimal changes. We love roasted chickpeas so it was no hardship to open another can of them. Directions on how to make roasted chickpeas can be found here

This cookie dough is a little different to work with than my normal sugar cookie recipe. You must work additional flour into the dough after chilling it to be able to successfully roll it out, as is stated in the recipe. I found that we liked the cookies better when they were allowed to brown slightly. Link to Vegan Royal Icing

Drain can of chickpeas. Set aside chickpeas. The juice is aquafaba and is used in this recipe as well as Vegan Royal Icing.

Cream the Earth Balance with the sugar until light and fluffy, about 3- 5 minutes. There is no need to soften it.

Add , the aquafaba and the extracts to the creaming butter/sugar mixture and scrape the sides of the bowl

Next mix together the flour, baking powder and salt. Add it all at once to the creamed mixture. Mix just until it is all combined.

Wrap this dough disc in plastic wrap and chill for at least 2 hours or overnight before using or you can store it for up to 1 week wrapped in plastic wrap in the refrigerator, or in the freezer for 2 months.

You must re work this dough with some additional flour to a pliable consistency after it has been chilled. Do not skip this step.

Knead it with some flour until it is no longer a crumbly mass, but a soft pliable dough

Roll out the dough to ¼" thick and cut shapes as desired

Transfer cookie cutouts to a parchment lined sheet pan and bake in preheated to 350° F oven for approximately 15-22 minutes or until light golden brown.

I found that these cookies taste better if they are baked until they are a light golden brown.

Did you know that you could make true royal icing without eggs? No? Me neither. I knew about glaze icing which uses confectioner’s sugar, corn syrup, lemon juice and some liquid (milk or water). It is similar to royal icing but doesn’t give the control or decorating options that royal icing gives a baker.

I wanted to try to make a vegan royal icing that would taste as good as my regular recipe and was easy to control.. A friend recommended that I join a Facebook group devoted solely to aquafaba. She is vegan and said that aquafaba is a common substitute for eggs in vegan recipes. The word aquafaba is the common name for the cooking liquid of beans and other legumes like chickpeas.

I didn’t have to do much experimenting. I did a lot of reading but in the end I decided to try my regular recipe but substitute the aquafaba for the pasteurized egg whites in my recipe.

These cookies were all decorated totally with vegan royal icing. Even if you don’t follow a vegan lifestyle you should give this a try. All you have to do is keep a can of chickpeas in your pantry and if you are ever out of eggs or meringue powder you will have an excellent, inexpensive substitute.

On a side note, if you want a really yummy, healthy snack roast the chickpeas that you now have left over.

To make roasted chickpeas rinse and drain the chickpeas. Spread the chickpeas on a clean towel to dry. When dry, mix them with about a tablespoon of olive oil and any of your favorite seasonings. My grandson used Old Bay. I used just salt but the sky is the limit and only limited by your taste buds and imagination. Spread them on a foil or parchment lined sheet pan. Roast for about 20 minutes at 400 degrees. We like them really crunchy so I roast them a little longer but you should experiment to see how you like them best. This is a picture of them after they came out of the oven. You won’t be sorry you tried them!

Mix confectioner’s sugar and cream of tarter in your mixer bowl. With mixer on low speed, add the aquafaba, water and the corn syrup. When it has all come together as a big lump in the bottom of your bowl, turn the speed up to high and beat for about 2 minutes. If it’s too thick, add some water. I like my icing super thick so you have the option to thin to your desired consistency for everything from flooding to roses. You will notice your icing will get whiter and glossy. That’s when it’s done. I always add white food coloring to my base icing at this point. Mix until combined. I have noticed that I no longer have discoloration on my cookies since I started adding white gel color but it's totally optional.